Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Jeep uses Google Maps API in online ad campaign

MediaPost Publications reports that the Jeep Chrysler Group has used the Google Maps API in an upcoming online ad campaign. WeAreTheMudds.com has been set up for the campaign which follows the accounts of a family of "Jeep enthusiasts". Here is more from the news story:

For now, the site--which features a family of Jeep-enthusiasts, the Mudds--is a bit of a tease. It includes brief bios for each of the Mudds--Brock, the father; Tracy, the mother; and their children, Clay, Summer, and Victoria. The site also includes a link to Victoria's blog--eventually, the other characters will also have blogs.The other familial blogs will be rolled out in the next two weeks, leading up to the Commander's Oct. 1 debut. In addition to the teaser site and the blogs, the campaign's centerpiece will be a series of four downloadable videos, which will feature Mudd family vacations.Each video will reveal coordinates to a virtual "geo-cache"-- geocaching is a hobby involving trekking to some remote location, burying a "cache" of items, and then posting the GPS coordinates of where that item can be found, so others can dig it up.Web site visitors can "dig up" the Mudd's caches by using an application designed with the Google Maps application programming interface. Each time a user digs up a cache, they are entered in a sweepstakes to win, among other things, a Jeep Commander--a seven-passenger trail-rated vehicle. (read the entire article..)

..There is no sign of the 4 videos which will feature the GPS coordinates for the mentioned "virtual geo-cache" just yet. It should be interesting to see what form this Google Maps integration takes!